Oscar Hits a High Note
Posted on April 30, 2025
Lando, Max & Co Chasing
Juan Pablo’s Comments
WITH OSCAR PIASTRI RIDING HIGH as our great country’s first driver to lead the F1 championship since Mark Webber – his manager, the Miami Grand Prix this week is gearing up to be an early highlight to a long season.
Oscar’s McLaren teammate Lando Norris started the season brilliantly in Australia, with his classy pole-to-post win in mostly woeful conditions.
Since then, the young Brit has made a bunch of odd errors allowing our Oscar to snatch an impressive, and very handy, 10-point lead in the drivers’ championship.
Former F1 star Juan Pablo Montoya reckons Lando’s recent drop in performance is down to Oscar ‘getting inside his head’.
But let us not forget that Lando secured his maiden Formula 1 win here in Miami last year, with Max Verstappen on pole.
Getting Inside Lando’s Head
Oscar and Lando
The Saudi Arabian GP told the story of the McLaren duo’s contrasting fortunes – Lando crashed in qualifying at the superb Jeddah Street Circuit, one of the premier series’ quickest, struggling to cross the line in 4th from 10th on the grid.
Oscar, meantime, scored his extraordinary season’s third win driving a near-perfect race and catapulting him to favourite for the 2025 title, despite Lando’s wealth of knowledge and experience in the sport.
But Columbian Juan Carlos Montoya believes Lando’s confidence has taken a dive because of Oscar’s due form – and the Briton needs to focus on himself instead of being concerned about what’s happening on the other side of the garage.
“Just stop looking at Oscar!”
“Absolutely, Oscar Piastri has got inside Lando Norris’s head,” Juan Carlos Montoya – winner of the 2000 Indy 500 – told GrandPrix247 earlier this week.
“Lando just wants so much more that it’s not there, realistically. I think somebody needs to be on Lando’s corner to go to him and say, ‘Just stop looking at Oscar. Just do you.’
“At the weekend, he said he felt clueless and like he’d never driven an F1 car before. Then he made those mistakes.”
Sure, it’s very early days – there are, after all, still 19 races to go – but Miami certainly should provide some clarity.
There’s no doubt McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown and Team Principal Andrea Stella are right across cogniscent of the concerns of Juan Carlos has raised and have that line of concern well under control.
Incidentally, Andrea once worked for Ferrari where he was a race engineer for Michael Schumacher, Kimi Räikkönen, and Fernando Alonso.
Mind you, the resurgence of Mercedes George Russell and ever-present Ferrari ace Charles Leclerc are keeping up the pressure on the McLaren duo! To say nothing of Max Verstappen’s sheer brilliance!
Weather a Tad Dodgy for Sunday
And Miami’s Special Edition
New Parc Ferme Rules in Play
The Miami Grand Prix is the second of six Sprint format events on the 2025 calendar.
Last year the FIA introduced a significant rule change to the parc ferme regulations for Sprint races. Before then car set-up could not be altered as from the start of Sprint Qualifying.
Now parc ferme rules are suspended from the end of the Sprint Race to the start of qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
This means car set-up can be modified based on data the teams acquire during the Sprint race.
And a timely reminder from Pirelli that teams all have simulation tools that allow them to effectively calculate how fuel weight affects tyre performance.
Compounds for Miami
Pirelli has chosen the same compounds last used a fortnight ago in Saudi Arabia: C3 as Hard, C4 as Medium and C5 as Soft – also a step softer than last season.
The surface that runs around the stadium is very smooth, and thermal degradation is a major factor as temperatures are expected to be very high – last year’s track temperature exceeded 55 °C.
The surface was re-laid in 2023 and, as with the other temporary Grand Prix circuits, grip levels will increase significantly the more the track rubbers-in across the weekend.
Pirelli expects support races for the F1 Academy and Porsche Carrera Cup North America to add to this phenomenon.
So far, the Miami Grand Prix has been a one-stop race.
Lance hit 355km/h in Miami in 2024.
Miami International Autodrome
The Miami International Autodrome is 5.412 kilometres long, with the race run over 57 laps. The layout incorporates parking lots, service roads and some public roads with a total of 19 corners, seven to the right and 12 to the left.
The site is generally flat, but some elevation changes have been built in especially between turns 13 and 16, where the track runs under overpasses, including on and off-ramps for the Florida Turnpike, with an uneven surface.
There are three DRS zones here, the ends of which provide the track’s best overtaking opportunities – at turns 1, 11 and 17.
The combined effect of slipstreaming and DRS produces very high speeds: last year, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll hit 355 km/h in the race.
FASCINATING FACTS
- Miami becomes the 80th round of the F1 World Championship held in the United States of America, since its inception in 1950.
2. That moves the US ahead of Germany and Great Britain to take second place on the list of countries to have hosted the most Grands Prix,
3. Italy is way out in front on 107!
4. McLaren’s Lando Norris secured his maiden Formula 1 win here last year, with Max Verstappen on pole.
5. So far, the quickest driver in qualifying has never won the race – but has always finished second.
6. The two drivers with the most USA wins are scheduled to race this weekend in Miami: Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, each with six victories.
7.With Charles Leclerc’s win in Austin last year, Ferrari is now the most successful team in the USA with 14 wins to its name.
MIAMI F1 GRAND PRIX
Miami International Autodrome I 03 – 05 May
PERTH WA TIMES
P1 Saturday 3rd May 00:30
Sprint Shootout
Saturday 3rd May 04:30
MIAMI SPRINT
Sunday 4th May 00:00
Qualifying
Sunday 4th May 04:00
MIAMI RACE
Monday 5th May 04:00
NEXT EVENT
ITALIAN (EMILIA-ROMAGNA) GRAND PRIX
Autodromo Enzo y Dino Ferrari I 16 – 18 May
EDITED by AC
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